weekend workshop

I am sooooo full from my wonderful weekend! I had two entire days to learn a skill I have been wanting to understand for most of my life. I come from a long line of silk screen artists, but I wasn't born when my grandfather and father were doing their printing. As most of you know, these past six months have been full of textile printing... this was the obvious next step. To say there was a lot of build up as I awaited for this weekend, would be a huge understatement. Can you believe that it was better than I could have ever hoped for!!? Ithaca is very lucky to have a resource like The Ink Shop, a not for profit printmakers' center, fine art press and gallery. The studio was amazing and my teacher, Kadie Salfi, was phenomenal. If you are local and considering printing, please look into all of the incredible workshops offered. I'm hooked and will sign up for any class Kadie teaches... she's that good!

I only created two images, but through watching and assisting the four other inspiring students in the class, I feel like I learned as much as if I had printed more. The first technique was reminiscent of freezer paper. I drew my image of a tree swallow directly onto contact paper.

After cutting it out with an x-acto knife, I applied the contact paper directly to the screen. I printed a bunch of copies onto newsprint, before I printed onto delicious archival paper. If paper were a dessert, this would be like a double layer chocolate mousse torte!

It's simple, sweet and makes me think of the warm days ahead. For the next print, Kadie recommended trying a different technique. I painted my image directly onto the screen with drawing fluid. In the below picture you can still see the ghost of my swallow...

Under the screen was a sheet of mylar and under that was an assortment of pressed ferns~ my guide. A very special fern-lover (whose birthday is coming up) was my inspiration.


After my rounds of paper printing, I slid in some linen. How satisfying! Multiple prints with a couple of swipes of a squeegee... revolutionary!

Hope you had a great weekend! I'm looking forward to sharing some more spring projects as the Vernal Equinox arrives...